Your first buck

Figured id start a thread were to could post pictures of the first whitetail or muley bucks shot. First bucks are often surrounded by good memories and hold a special place. And a right of passage for some. So I thought it would be a good idea to share and reflect on these memories with fellow forum members.

Heres my first,and biggest deer,shot in nov 2011. Never scored him but he field dressed at 200lbs. There was prior no sign of him in the area. I took a week off from work for bow season and got nothing. 30 min into the second day of rifle season ,just off of a logging trail this guy walked right in front of me ,30 yards broad side .Dropped him where he stood. Ive never saw my old man so proud in my life. He was more excited then i was. Especially since out area grows big bodied but small antlered j deer , even 6 pointers being far a few between.

 

Nice first buck young man , he looks good on the wall .

 

a spike buck i shot in 1958 with a .303 british rifle i converted into a light weight sporter that i paid 9.00 for at k,s army-navy store, and with one of my first reloads at about 75 yards. the way i acted you would have thought i shot a 400" elk. since then i have hunted all over the world and shot cape buffalo to dikker along with hundreds of deer, but that little spike buck was the fuel that fanned a life long fire to hunt.eastbank.

 

The year was 1965 and I didn't even know Oklahoma had a deer season. I was working as a roughneck on oil well drilling rigs so I was used to a rough life. I went to the local American Legion on Saturday night for a Country & Western dance and during the evening a good friend mentioned that Oklahoma was having a deer season. He said if I was at his house the next morning at 6 am he would take me deer hunting. I drank several beers and danced until about 1:30 am. I got to his house at 6 am and he took me down a country road and told me to climb the fence and go to a wooded point that we could barely see against the dark sky. I walked to the point in the dark and sat down with a newly acquired 270 Weatherby magnum. I had drank way too much beer and I was sitting on the ground on my rear thinking about how bad I felt. As it started to get daylight I was sitting with my head between my knees and just by luck I happened to look between the toes of my hunting boots and I saw an 8 point buck browsing on oak brush about 150 yards away. He was fat & slick, and I raised the rifle and killed him with one shot. I felt so bad I could barely show my excitement, but 52 years later I hunt harder and get really excited.

 

This is the kind of stuff I love hearing about. Even you people don't have pics, it's nice to hear the stories.thanks

 

The last words my late dad spoke to me when he was dying in his bed were:

"Remember that first buck you shot hunting with me with your rifle?"

 

My first 'buck' was my first deer and was shot on Christmas day 1967. I was shooting crows on the edge of a corn field. After shooting 2 crows, I walked to the treeline blocking the field and saw a doe and a small spike feeding. I put a slug in my 870 Remington, elevated over his shoulders and let fly. He dropped right there. I walked the 90 yards as if I were floating on clouds. Deer were very scarce at that time and I was elated. I was the envy of my classmates for a week.

 

One horned spike, 1968, opening day. Shot from a tree blind straight down.

 

I'd post mine but I think that I've beat that horse (or deer) to a pulp around here LOL

 

Button buck at 30 yards. I had the scope turned up to 9x when I took the shot, and everyone thought that was quite funny.

 

That's a dandy. Congrats.

I started hunting when an experienced hunter/friend offered to take me to his stand on the opening morning of rifle season. Several times, he reiterated we'll likely wait all morning and come home empty handed - "that's just the way it goes".

Yet, at 3 minutes past legal, a 6-point buck meandered out of the woods and stopped to present a perfect broadside shot. At 10 minutes past legal, we were heading home with my first deer in the back of his truck.

It wasn't a large buck by any measure, but it was a clean kill, my first deer and I sure was proud. I ribbed my bud a bit about hunting not being so hard. "You got lucky", he replied. Truer words were never spoken.

 

I have been doing this for about 16yrs and shot at my first buck around 2005/2006 while hunting public land with a buddy. we drove down there like maniacs to get to the state forest before sunup and ended up driving the truck over the hillside not paying attention to the dead end road with snow and ice at a steep angle at 4am. got pulled out and parked and started walking. I kicked up several doe and began walking and looked over a fence on private land and there was a buck maybe 110-120'' walking right at the public land line. I stood there watching the trail and when he jumped the fence and I shot, he went in a circle and back over the fence. I found a little fur but no blood and was told by the ticked off landowner who seen the deer jump the fence no tracking. I have no clue if I hit it or not as this was the first buck I shot at and I had buck fever. (I was about 16-17yo) I'm about 90% I hit it cause it mule kicked and ran hard. landowner began threatening us cause he wanted that buck.

2013 I decided to head south with a buddy and sighted my 12ga slug gun in the day before and it was shooting good. opening morning I'm dozing off in the stand and hear noise and look over and its a small 6pt walking to my left about 50yards away. I fired and it ran in front of me limping and walking towards my buddy. I put the crosshair on its side and fired and it hit the deer smack in the rear end. I then knew something was wrong so yelled to him to shoot the deer it was wounded. the deer stood there and we both fired at the same time (he took his good ole time) and the deer dropped. both shots about 100yards. found 2 slugs in it so I told him I wasn't sure I got the kill shot so it was his. (first deer) I later found out the scope had broken from the recoil of the sight in. (never buy bushnell again)

2015. I was more of a weekend gun hunter and began bow hunting with a new buddy. he took me to his farm and put me in a stand with a crossbow and it got too dark for me to see in the woods so I climbed down and headed for the field. while walking down the atv trail I see a buck maybe 90-100'' 8pt. I sat down next to a tree on the edge of the field and the deer turned slight quartering away from me and I shot. he ran about 20-30yards into the field and stood there and threw up blood and collapsed. I was 100% sure he was down so we went back and got the ATV and went back about 20min later and when my buddy found him in the beans and grabbed him the deer moved and barely got up and headed for the woods. He told me come back and look in the morning. well what he didn't tell me was that the woods were only maybe 40yards deer on that side and the rest was a nature preserve and you have to call rangers and what not to get to the deer. I looked for 3hrs the next day walking the line with binos and nothing. that buck only made it maybe 80yards total and piled up just on the other side of a deep, wide creek in some thick stuff. my buddy found him while tracking his in the nature preserve. Seeing how it was found I went ahead and tagged him and have the rack on the wall. It was a good hit as all the blood from where he threw up and where he dropped was bright red with bubbles in it so at least one lung/maybe both was hit.

There is a large part of me that says I should have left the rack of the 8pt cause he was left to waste but an old timer told me nothing goes to waste in nature and that coyotes, coons, hawks, etc got to eat for a few days when otherwise they would have went hungry. If I was allowed in the nature preserve I would have found him but I was worried about calling the ranger and not having a slip cause it was my buddies place and I was invited. You guys might think I'm a giant ***** cause of the 2 lost deer but I was young, dumb and couldn't control my buck fever.

January 2017. Buddy invited me to his place again for a late muzzleloader hunt. it was about 5 degrees outside and I headed to my fav stand on his place. all oaks with a bedding area not far away. I got to the stand and the lifeline was frozen so I walked back to the truck to get my tree strap and headed back. the sun was coming up by now so I rushed in and kicked up 4 doe right by the stand. I climbed in and froze for 3-4hrs until I heard noise behind me. 2 doe heading to the field. I looked right and there was another one about 100yards away in open woods. I stood up and rested the rifle on the seat of another stand in the same tree and got ready to shoot but heard something to my left which was my front at first and there was about 10 doe coming from the bedding area. I got ready to shoot the largest doe and here came the guy in the pic below. he ran all the other deer out of the oaks and began feeding. I popped the top of the gloves and got frost bite really bad on the trigger finger and thumb from holding on the receiver waiting to shoot. he closed to about 60-70yards and went broadside so I aimed and he walked forward and behind a tree. when he cleared the tree and stopped I fired and he ran hard for about 30yards and then walked away. thinking I missed I climbed down and no blood, hair, nothing. I made my way to the nature preserve about 100yards away and called my buddy who assisted in tracking. we walked over to the creek/river and he was laying right next to a fallen tree. only 2 spots of blood when he fell down the hill. perfect broadside shot blew out both lungs. taxi and butcher aged him about 3-3.5yo and field dressed at 260lb

He is at the taxidermist right now. at first I wasn't going to mount him but imo this is my first buck and wanted to do it right.

 

Ohi, sounds like you've had some rough experiences. But sure is a nice buck!

 

yeah after that 5pt where the scope broke I have taken several deer without issues so just bad luck and cheap gear. the scope back lens popped out later that day when I checked it and it wouldn't hit squat. I grew up in the city and wasn't really exposed to this stuff until around 2005/2006 (earlier years was just tagging along) when we moved to the country. taught myself how to hunt and shoot. I had a rough start cause I was an idiot that had no clue what I was doing but I think I'm getting better. LOL.

 

Opening morning of Arkansas Deer Season 1969 and I remember it like yesterday. I had found an old house place on my uncle's land that nobody had lived in for several years. There was old garden spot and orchard that had fresh scrapes all around it. Just as it was getting good shooting light I heard something coming up the cedar glade that bordered the oak flat where the garden was. This gorgeous buck stopped just as I put the crosshairs on him. It seemed like an eternity before he stepped into the clear and I put a 180gr Power Point through his chest. It was over 30 minutes into the season. Only a 6 point, but to this day I have not seen a bigger one. His G2's are 9" and his main beams are 21" with a 16" spread.

I have him mounted with a perfect 8 and a 13 point. As you can see the mount is old and ratty looking, but when I look at it I remember every detail and I smile.

.

 

It was 1973, my buddy had some family land in S LA. We decided to go deer hunting, the season was open and we each had a shotgun with buckshot. it was just after daylight,we were walking into the property on a road which was slightly flooded. my buddy heard a deer walking toward us in the water. We could not see it as brush and high weeds were taller than a deer.We were on a mowed road and the deer was going to come out in the road about 30 yds ahead of us. We quickly made a plan when the deer stepped out He was going to shoot at the head and I was going to shoot at the shoulder. Well the plan worked .We shot a the same time and the deer crumpled. It was a spike. We hauled it to town and I purchased a big game license with the dead deer in my VW beetle!! I was 22 and he was 20. He died of a heart attack at 57several years ago.

I'll never forget that first deer!

Bull

 

my favorite first buck was my sons first buck. he was 8 or 9 yrs old. he had killed a couple does by this point.

we were sitting in a old box blind when a small 6 pt walked by about 25 yrds. he saw it and smoothly put his gun up and aimed. and aimed, and aimed and aimed some more. I calmly was whispereing in his ear, anytime your ready big guy! he aimed some more...kaboom. perfect heart shot! I was so proud!

a few years later at 15 he shot the biggest deer id ever seen at the time. he was the most excited kid id ever seen but tried to act like it was no big deal.made a perfect 250 yrd shot.

 

First buck and first car.

 

Nice buck for a first. Mine was a 6 point killed near Leaky, Texas in 1963. Didn't have my Kodak Brownie camera with me, sorry, and doubt I'd still have the picture, anyway. Too many moves since then.

Hmm, I THINK they'd invented color film by then.

 

Took my son-in-law out on his first hunt. He is from Springfield, MA and had never hunted deer. Hadn't shot a gun much until he married into the family. I was teaching Hunter Safety for the AGFC then and had pictures of deer at different angles with the aiming points marked. I had been bowhunting a family farm and had a super trail located and set him up in a ladderstand at the edge of a overgrown field. An hour after the opener I heard a shot from his direction and then he came on the walkie talkie. "Dad, I hit one and it ran off." When I arrived he was standing where the deer had been. Maximum range of 30 yards. To make a long story short, we trailed a lung shot monster doe about 50 yards into a thicket. The kid, he was \ in thirties but he is still a kid to me, was ecstatic.

That afternoon I put him back on the same stand and didn't make it to my stand when he shot and then called on the walkie talkie again. "Dad, I have another pickup. By the way, are spikes legal?" Sure enough, when I arrived he was grinning from ear to ear. There at his feet was a 3 point. I had to explain that this was deer shooting and not deer hunting. Next year he had to pick his own spot. It took 2 more seasons before he killed another one.

 

First buck was a spike in 1979. Came by chasing does at about 50 feet. I whistled and he stopped and that was it. Went up over a hill and piled up. Quick tracking job as there was snow on and the blood trail was about four feet wide. My uncles brother in law was sitting within a few yards of where he went down. He was a terrible hunter and that was the only buck he ever had get close enough to Shoot! To say he was startled is an understatement.

 

1949. Germany. If I remember correctly the name of the town was Fulda. Shot a 6 point Roe Buck .
Was using a Savage 99 in 250/3000 cal. Or if you like just plain old 250 cal. They are small for sure.
Kind of like the Florida Keys Deer. Pic`s long gone...........

 

My first hunt found me sitting with my back up against a large tree in the Catskills. Something must have spooked a spike buck and he was running hard through the woods. All I heard was what sounded like a freight train running behind me. I stood up and saw him running past me about 30 yards away.

I wasn't long out of the Army where we had trained with a technique called "quick kill". It was basically throw your rifle quickly to your shoulder, look over the barrel, and shoot. I did this with the shotgun I was carrying and managed to put a slug into his spine just below his neck, he dropped like a sack of potatoes. He was making a pitiful noise and I went over and finished him with a head shot from my .38Spl. service revolver.

This all happened in a minute or so, and I was in somewhat of an adrenaline shock for a little while after. lol

When a friend and I dressed him we found a small piece of a twig inside him that the slug had carried with it. Talk about a brush buster.

 

My closest friend during the teen years and I bought a Quick Skill Game that consisted of a bb gun without sights, two metal disk and a pair of safety glasses. It was patterned after the military's version. We got really good at it. His first deer was a spike that jumped out of bed, made 2 or 3 jumps and Dee popped him like a champion skeet shooter. The Quick Skill worked it's magic for him.

 

Jerry's gun shop is going to pull your advertising account...